Film Reviews:

Alien Resurrection

(Jean-Pierre Jeunet, US, 1997)

In Hollywood, nothing keeps a successful character down. And so, despite
being incinerated at the close of Alien3, Sigourney Weaver is back
as Ripley in a bizarre fourth instalment of the space-horror franchise.
Alien Resurrection makes no attempt to equal either the cold terror
of Ridley Scott's Alien, or the relentless roller coaster thrills
of James Cameron's Aliens. Even so, its illogical detail and tasteless
imagery make it strangely unsettling viewing. Although the film is confused,
trying to make sense of it is more interesting than yawning through David
Fincher's dingy, downbeat Alien3.

Alien Resurrection opens two hundred years after Alien3. Following
several failed attempts, the scientists on board the space ship "Auriga,"
finally succeed in cloning Ripley from the ashes of her immolated body.
Conveniently, her memories are intact, but it proves impossible to fully
separate her DNA from that of the alien she was carrying. As a result, the
Ripley clone has a heightened awareness of the creatures, and some enhanced
powers. These include acid blood, super strength, and an uncanny skill for
basketball. The queen alien Ripley was gestating still exists separately
within her, and is removed, and a number of aliens are hatched out and contained
in cells. Certain that they can house train the monsters, the scientists
confidently ignore Ripley's warnings of impending violent doom. Naturally,
it's not long before her predictions come horribly true. The aliens contrive
an ingenious escape, after which the movie quickly degenerates into a succession
of scenes showing interchangeable characters walking down dark corridors,
clutching large guns. A group of space truckers feature, most of whom are
forgettable. Of these, Ron Perlman is vaguely irritating as the wise-cracking
Johner, while Winona Ryder is badly miscast in the underwritten role of Annalee
Call. There's very little meaningful interaction between Ripley and Call,
but worse than that is that Ripley's dialogue is so shallow and annoying.
Mostly, she delivers unfunny in-jokes, or dips into self parody for her lurid
warnings about the aliens' nasty antics. Her decision to commit a 'mercy
killing' using a less-than-merciful flame thrower is also unintentionally
hilarious. In the small role of the scientist Gediman, Brad Dourif is by
far the most memorable human presence in the movie. He gamely runs through
his repertoire of twitches and intense stares, and, in the film's best scene,
attempts to French kiss an alien through a sheet of glass.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet manages to make use of some of the dark,
retro-fantastique style he brought to his earlier films Delicatessen
and The City of Lost Children. His influence is at its most vivid
in the finale. For this, a vaguely Frankenstein-like monster is introduced,
and this misbegotten creature presides over the final scenes: a combination
of nightmarish violence, and feverish silliness. Jeunet's obvious attraction
to the queasy, freakish side of the Alien mythos has resulted in a
film that won't please most fans of the earlier movies. Nevertheless, it
is only when Alien Resurrection escapes its obligatory fan pleasing
elements and finally goes over the top, that there are a few images infused
with the baroque grandeur of an opium addict's daydream.